πορφύρα
purple
‘purple’ is one of 2 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
See every Accusative-case word in the Greek New Testament →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Case
- Accusative
- The case of the direct object and of extent.
- Genitive
- The case of source, possession, or “of” — answers “whose / from what.”
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
1 distinct verse where G4209 appears in the Genitive case, across 1 book. Filtered view — show all forms. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Greek form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Greek New Testament; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences of this word are not indexed here.
Revelation 1 verse
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
πορφυρα — transliterated porphýra — is a Greek noun carrying the sense “purple.” It occurs a mere 4 verses across Scripture. Its uses cluster heavily in Mark (50% of all occurrences). Its earliest occurrence is Mark 15:17. Thayer's distinguishes 2 senses for it. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G4209 catalogs a Greek word from the Greek New Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Greek New Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 4
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 4 distinct verses.
- 3 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 3 of 27 New Testament books.
- #1,877
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Greek words (rank 1,877 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 4 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Mark 2 verses 50%
- Luke 1 verse 25%
- Revelation 1 verse 25%
By section of the New Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Some books belong to more than one corpus (Luke is in both the Gospels and the Lukan corpus, and so on), so these shares overlap and need not total 100%. Each figure is a share of the word’s 4 distinct verses.
- Gospels 3 verses · 75%
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 1 verse · 25%
- Johannine 1 verse · 25%
- Revelation 1 verse · 25%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Purple 5×
- American Standard Version: Purple 5×
- Berean Standard Bible: Purple 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Purple robe 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G4209 across 5 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders G4209 across 5 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders G4209 across 4 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders G4209 across 4 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in Thayer's
The 2 senses Thayer's distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- the purple fish, a species of shell fish or mussel
- a fabric coloured with purple dye, a garment made from purple cloth
Word origin
Origin: of Latin origin
Of Latin origin; the purple mussel that is (by implication) the red blue color itself and finally a garment dyed with it : - purple.
— Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (1890), public domain.
Forms in the corpus
The 2 distinct written forms G4209 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that case’s occurrences in the concordance.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| πορφύραν porphýran | Noun, Accusative, Singular, Feminine | Mark 15:17 | 3 |
| πορφύρας porphýras | Noun, Genitive, Singular, Feminine | Revelation 18:12 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G4209, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word πορφυρα appears 33 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 33 verses in 7 books.
- 33
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 33
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 7 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 7 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Exodus 25:4 πορφύρα
- 2 Chronicles 2:6 πορφύρα
- Proverbs 31:22 πορφύρα
- Song of Solomon 7:6 πορφύρα
- Jeremiah 10:9 πορφύρα
- Ezekiel 27:7 πορφύρα
- Daniel 5:7 πορφύρα
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G4209) appears in the Greek Septuagint. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context; the Greek form is the matched word — the English is not keyword-highlighted.
- Exodus 25:4 πορφύρα blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goats' hair,
- Exodus 26:1 πορφύρα "Moreover you shall make the tent with ten curtains; of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, with cherubim. The work of the skillful workman you shall make them.
- Exodus 26:31 πορφύρα "You shall make a veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cherubim. The work of the skillful workman shall it be made.
- Exodus 26:36 πορφύρα "You shall make a screen for the door of the Tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, the work of the embroiderer.
- Exodus 27:16 πορφύρα For the gate of the court shall be a screen of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, the work of the embroiderer; their pillars four, and their sockets four.
- Exodus 28:5 πορφύρα They shall take the gold, and the blue, and the purple, and the scarlet, and the fine linen.
- Exodus 28:8 πορφύρα The skillfully woven band, which is on it, that is on him, shall be like its work and of the same piece; of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.
- Exodus 28:15 πορφύρα "You shall make a breastplate of judgment, the work of the skillful workman; like the work of the ephod you shall make it; of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, shall you make it.
- Exodus 28:33 πορφύρα On its hem you shall make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, around its hem; and bells of gold between them round about:
- Exodus 31:4 πορφύρα to devise skillful works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,
- Exodus 35:6 πορφύρα blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goats' hair,
- Exodus 35:25 πορφύρα All the women who were wise-hearted spun with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, the blue, the purple, the scarlet, and the fine linen.
- Exodus 36:9 πορφύρα The length of each curtain was twenty-eight cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits. All the curtains had one measure.
- Exodus 36:10 πορφύρα He coupled five curtains to one another, and the other five curtains he coupled one to another.
- Exodus 36:12 πορφύρα He made fifty loops in the one curtain, and he made fifty loops in the edge of the curtain that was in the second coupling. The loops were opposite one to another.
- Exodus 36:15 πορφύρα The length of each curtain was thirty cubits, and four cubits the breadth of each curtain. The eleven curtains had one measure.
- Exodus 36:31 πορφύρα He made bars of acacia wood; five for the boards of the one side of the tent,
- Exodus 36:36 πορφύρα He made four pillars of acacia for it, and overlaid them with gold. Their hooks were of gold. He cast four sockets of silver for them.
- Exodus 37:3 πορφύρα He cast four rings of gold for it, in its four feet; even two rings on its one side, and two rings on its other side.
- Exodus 37:5 πορφύρα He put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to bear the ark.
- Exodus 37:16 πορφύρα He made the vessels which were on the table, its dishes, its spoons, its bowls, and its pitchers with which to pour out, of pure gold.
- Exodus 39:12 πορφύρα and the third row, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst;
- 2 Chronicles 2:6 πορφύρα But who is able to build him a house, seeing heaven and the heaven of heavens can't contain him? who am I then, that I should build him a house, save only to burn incense before him?
- 2 Chronicles 2:13 πορφύρα Now I have sent a skillful man, endowed with understanding, of Huram my father's,
- 2 Chronicles 3:14 πορφύρα He made the veil of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen, and worked cherubim thereon.
- Proverbs 31:22 πορφύρα She makes for herself carpets of tapestry. Her clothing is fine linen and purple.
- Song of Solomon 7:6 πορφύρα How beautiful and how pleasant are you, Love, for delights!
- Jeremiah 10:9 πορφύρα There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artificer and of the hands of the goldsmith; blue and purple for their clothing; they are all the work of skillful men.
- Ezekiel 27:7 πορφύρα Of fine linen with embroidered work from Egypt was your sail, that it might be to you for an ensign; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was your awning.
- Daniel 5:7 πορφύρα The king cried aloud to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whoever shall read this writing, and show me the interpretation of it, shall be clothed with purple, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.
- Daniel 5:14 πορφύρα I have heard of you, that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you.
- Daniel 5:18 πορφύρα You king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father the kingdom, and greatness, and glory, and majesty:
- Daniel 6:4 πορφύρα Then the presidents and the satraps sought to find occasion against Daniel as touching the kingdom; but they could find no occasion nor fault, because he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G4209) in the Septuagint — not a translation of any one Hebrew word. The store carries no word-level Hebrew↔Greek alignment, so no Hebrew original is asserted here. Counts come from the recovered LXX Strong's tagging — high-frequency vocabulary is well covered, while rare or late forms may be untagged — so they reflect tagged occurrences and may slightly undercount.
